Daniel Ricciardo has been ruled out of the Dutch Grand Prix with a broken hand sustained in a crash during Friday practice, handing Liam Lawson his F1 debut with AlphaTauri in the process.
Probably a quite high number from the pre-1990 privateer era. Where some teams basically were a one man show who sold their second seat to whoever wanted it for a time.
Replays later showed Ricciardo’s hands being thrown around in the cockpit due to him still holding the steering wheel when he impacted the wall, with the Australian visibly in discomfort when he stepped out of the car.
Didn't Alonso break his hand last season in a similar way? I wonder if it's possible to have some kind of safety training or procedure to prevent this kind of injury.
I don't think training would have prevented this type of incident. If you watch the onboard footage the yoke snaps almost instantaneously--he didn't have any time to react. And he had to avoid hitting the McLaren, so it's not like he could have safely let go of the wheel earlier in the corner.
Only possibility is letting go of the wheel prior to impact. But if Ricciardo had done that, he would've hit Lando, which was what he was trying to avoid by hitting the wall in the first place.
Well, every former driver ever who goes into commentating says that you are supposed to let go of the steering wheel as soon as you cant control the car anymore. They know that.
The problem is that drivers tend to want to try and regain control for too long instead of crashing.